The Anatomy and Figure Drawing Thread

[Pieter]

I tought it would be cool to have a thread where we could give and recieve critique about our figure drawings and anatomy studies.
The human body is one of the hardest subjects to draw, especially if you want to learn to draw it from imagination convincingly.
The basic idea is to post a bunch of images which the other members will disect with their knowledge, and notify if they notice a recurring error.
The idea is to learn from eachother and identify our weak spots faster so we might work on them.

I'll start of with some studies from 2 weeks ago. Mostly Bridgman torso studies. And then some studies from a mirror and some hands.
Mirrors are very helpfull when you don't have a model. Bridgman's anatomy books are some of the best you can study from.

[Twin-Dragon88]

Wooo! Bridgeman is THE MAN!!!! This is a grand idear! Now to find some time to draw up some stuff...

[CLiNK]

Beautiful work rubby-mcdubby.

[TheEYE]

Seriously man!
Awesome work Rubber. The feet are kick ass! 

[Katatafisch]

okay since this is a thread to spot mistakes and improve and get help ill post some of my crappy attempts too, i didnt scetch anatomy for a while, so i feel like i improved backwards XD
great stuff pieter, im not in the position to crit on your stuff plus i dont see any mistakes, it all looks really good

k here are mine from yesterday and today, will post more soon, as i do them

[CLiNK]

Kata I think the only thing you need to watch is some of your proportions.


Here's some I did. Mostly without reference except for the last ones which I copied from some Frazetta sketches 

[Pieter]

Here's a copy of the post I made in Cel's sketchbook regarding proportions

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2256799

Easy way of getting them: Draw the length of the head and torso with a line of action. Divide it in three evenly spaced sections. (You can read these of the chart)
Divide each section in half (cranium lenght). Middle of the smallest bottom section should be crotch. Crotch = 1/2 figure. Divide the bottom half in two. Knees should be at the bottom of the upper half.

Katata: I'm with Clink about the proportions.

Clinky: Pretty good, they have a good feel to them. Your head/neck zone is too small sometimes. Arms are a bit short in the second image.

[Katatafisch]

yeah i know i have alot problems with proportions...ive read alot of stuff about proportions but everyone has different measurements and stuff...

so far ive heard about 8 heads, 7,5 heads, 7heads, 6 heads+feet now i see your  skull circle thing...

i cant keep all those formulas in mind and try to give them all credit, but i cant decide which one is right, so i kept trying without, hoping i may find the right one, but without knowing some basic proportions i cant seem to come up with believable figures :S

but i guess working on it, with a little help of good old gottfried bammes can fix some of these issues, at least up to a state where its not thaaaat obvious that im having problems with these ^^

[Pieter]

Yeah, you just gotta pick one system and roll with it. I really like these cranial proportions because they hit allot of skeletal landmarks.
You have a printed copy of a Bammes book? They're really good books, it's a shame they're out of print.

[Katatafisch]

i have "sehen und verstehen" the bible among the anatomy books, i was told, itsbeen printed in 1985 and i got it as a present
and then i have "die gestalt des menschen" which is also really good, but its a new copy, i ordered it some months ago via amazon...

[Loathsome]

First picture

The first image is wrong. You don't count heads like that.. at leasnt not from what I've learnt. You count from the top of the head the bottom of the chin. I've never counted a humans length longer than 8 heads. And that guy was reallly tall.

[Katatafisch]

nope it isnt wrong, it just makes the whole measurement with the cranium and not with the whole head...
thats why i wrote that its hard to find the right technique, coz there are so many ones you can go with...

[Twin-Dragon88]

How many heads tall you are doesn't mean literally how tall you are. You could be eight heads tall but be 5'6 with a small head. I've seen that and it's weird looking, but realy. Michelangelo used eight heads and he had a pretty mediocre to good career. It's good for making someone look powerful. 6.5-7 heads is the supposable average I think, but that's including the bottom of the jaw. Probably the same thing.

[Pieter]

The first image is wrong. You don't count heads like that.. at leasnt not from what I've learnt. You count from the top of the head the bottom of the chin. I've never counted a humans length longer than 8 heads. And that guy was reallly tall.

These are cranial based proportions, not head based proportions. And technically the proportions are sound, if you consider it to be to large then that's just personal preference. Most people in my family are about 8 heads. I also know 2 people that are 9 heads high. they're really tall and with a small head. They're an exception tough, you won't see those often.
You need to keep in mind that everyone has different proportions, these are just the averaged or idealized proportions (which probably give the best starting point).
Also I think most cartoonists/animators/etc are a bit more drawn to 7 or so head-tall people because it appears closer to a cartoon.
If you give a person a comparably larger head he'll often look more friendly/cutesy whereas "powerfull" characters usually have a relatively small head and small features to make the body seem larger in comparison. If you look at fashion or certain conceptart for instance they'll often shrink the head to make the character have more presence (it also often gives more of a tough realism look as opposed to a more hugable semi-cartoony style). If you've ever been to a fashion academy and seen the students design drawings you'll be amazed of the proportions they use, i've seen characters of over 12 heads high, including legs that make up over 2/3 of the body.

[Loathsome]

very well.